It is a common fallacy to suppose that the value of a lottery ticket is the prize money times the odds of winning. Thus, if the prize is $1 Million and the chance of winning is one in 2 million, those who fall for the fallacy say that the ticket is "worth" 50 cents. And thus, they say, the person who pays a dollar for the ticket is being duped.
The fallacy lies in the totally arbitrary assumption that the "value" of the ticket can be computed in that way.
When people buy a lottery ticket, they are buying the opportunity to fantasize for the days or weeks between the time of the purchase and the drawing.
Other people may wish to sneer at this form of "entertainment." They are free to do so, but they should do so without engaging in the fallacious claim that they can prove "objectively" that lottery tickets are a "bad investment" or that those who buy them are being defrauded.
Excellent post, and entirely correct. I just don't think teh government should be hawking this rather costly excusion into fantasy among the more impecunious elements. It is infra dig, and well, wrong. But I have already said that.